Art guitars

Our gig last night at the Pleasure Pier in Galveston was cancelled due to weather, but that freed up me and Johnny to attend a very cool event instead - the "HandPlayed: Austin Paints Guitars" exhibit and silent auction. 

HandPlayed is a project between Moniker Guitars, a custom guitar shop here in Austin, and 12 local artists. Moniker provided each of the artists with a guitar and asked them to paint, engrave, etc. the guitars to create fully playable works of art. They then put the art guitars on display at Up Collective, the show we attended last night, and they're auctioning the guitars at 32auctions.com/monikerguitars until December 15 to benefit the Austin Music Foundation.  

What makes this event especially cool for us is that Moniker is currently building a custom guitar for Johnny, so by the end of January, Johnny will have his very own guitar work of art, though admittedly, the guitars we saw last night were slightly more artistic than the one Johnny will be playing. 

Upon seeing the awesome pieces last night, I decided I needed to share the art with you guys, so here are some images from last night's exhibit. (If you'd like to buy me and Johnny a gift, we would like either the one by Graham Franciose or the one by Kong Screenprinting. We like to give people options. Thank you in advance for your generous gift - you are the bomb diggity.)

(This one didn't list an artist, so I think it might be something Moniker created.)

(by Brian Phillips)

(by David Salinas)

(by Bob Schneider)

(by Graham Franciose)

(By Kristen + Eve from MakeATX)

(by Kong Screenprinting)

(by Sophie Roach)

Amazing, right??? There are more art guitars at the auction site, but these were the ones that most resonated with me. It's truly inspiring to live in such a vibrant artistic community. You see the visual art on the guitars and can just hear the music that the visual art represents. So cool.

Which is your favorite?